Hensley said the man was recently terminated from an adjacent business, Felix Radiator Shop, which also was damaged by the fire.

"It appears his motive to start the fire was to get back at Felix's shop," Hensley said.

The businesses were closed when the fire broke out at 9 p.m. and no one was injured, but one dog and several chickens and pigeons died, Hensley said. Another dog was critically injured.

Hensley said a security guard and two bystanders at a nearby game room, where Turrubiartes parked his vehicle, saw Turrubiartes carry a gasoline can to the feed store's front moments before the fire erupted.

Investigators later determined that gasoline was used to start the fire, which began on the store's front porch.

The witnesses copied Turrubiartes' license plate number as he drove away, and it was traced to a woman who had left the vehicle to be repaired at a Cloverleaf-area auto mechanic shop. She didn't know anyone had been driving it.

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Investigators found Turrubiartes sleeping on a narrow bed inside the shop, where police said they think he was living and working.